


Loyalty

by KitsuDark



Category: Original Work
Genre: Adventure, Coming of Age, F/F, F/M, Fantasy, I can't think of any right now, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Third Person, Politics, Romance, kind of, medieval times, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-22
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 07:24:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6319984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsuDark/pseuds/KitsuDark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claudia is the daughter of a knight. She is hard working, intelligent, and above all else, she is loyal. Due to recent events, Claudia might have to figure out where exactly her loyalties lie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> This story is dedicated to my Moirail, my best best friend, and my biggest Allie. He has always encouraged me unconditionally, been there with me through everything, and debated all of my horrible ideas. He also makes a lot of really bad puns.

After an afternoon of searching through the garden’s, Claudia finally found the perfect weapon. The stick was about two feet long. It was thick on one edge and narrowed out slightly as it went on. The best part was that there were no other twigs branching off.

 “Did you find one yet!”

 Jocelyn came running towards Claudia. Jocelyn had long since picked out her sword. The branch was smaller and thinner than Claudia’s. Despite being the daughter of a blacksmith, Jocelyn did not seem picky about her choice of weapon.

 “Yup!,” Claudia said proudly, displaying her sword. “You know this wouldn’t be a problem if your dad just let us borrow some swords.”

 Jocelyn nodded in agreement. Like Claudia, she didn’t grasp why two seven year old girls shouldn’t be allowed to play with sharp objects.

 “Same rules as last time! If you get hit with it, you can’t use that part of your body. If it hits a vital spot, your dead.”

 Jocelyn nodded in agreement, gripping her imaginary blade tightly. Then with a yell, the two girls charged at each other. Claudia blocked every attack Jocelyn threw at her. She was on the defensive, and she guarded herself well. With a quick flick of her stick, she hit the arm Jocelyn was attacking her with.

 “That hurt!” She yelled out.

 “Lost your arm,” Claudia merely taunted.

 Jocelyn quickly switched arms, letting her wounded arm hang limply at her side. With Jocelyn using her off arm, the fight got much easier. After blocking a few more hits, Claudia’s weapon make contact with Jocelyn’s side.

 “No fair! Your Mom’s a knight, so of course your gonna win!”

“My mom’s never around to teach me! And your dad’s a blacksmith, shouldn’t you know swords!” Claudia shot back, getting somewhat annoyed at her friend.

 “I want a rematch!” Jocelyn shouted, already shrugging off the pain in her side.

 “You guys are such losers! Using sticks to fight! I get fight with a real sword.”

 It was easy for Claudia to connect the haughty voice to a name. Prince Rylan had made it his life’s goal to taught Claudia. Apparently the fact she didn’t have a dad made her some kind of target for him. For the last few weeks he had been tormenting her mercilessly, but he was still a prince.

 “Well not everyone can be as lucky as you,” Claudia said sarcastically.

 “True, not only do I have money, power, but I have two parents who love me. You don’t even have one.”

 That was it. It was Claudia’s fault that her mother was away all the time. Being a knight meant traveling a lot. It wasn’t like she could take Claudia with her. She snatched Jocelyn’s stick from her hands and quickly tossed it too the young prince. He barely caught it.

 “How about you show me how good those lessons of yours are, prince,” she told him, spitting out the words.

 “Gladly.”

 Claudia charged at the young boy, her stick grasped firmly in her hands. She easily dodged his lunge and swung her weapon at the Prince’s calves from behind. The stick hit him and he fell to the ground. Claudia was getting ready to hit him again when she her her name yelled. She quickly dropped the weapon hoping that it hadn’t looked as bad as it had seemed.

 Standing before her was an older chubby man, sporting a long black beard. She recognized him immediately as Jocelyn’s father.

 “Dad? What are you,” but he raised a hand to silence Jocelyn as he caught his breath.

 “An adult! Good you can tell my father what this trash just did!” the prince shouted.

 “Sorry prince, but I don’t have time to deal with you right now,” the blacksmith stated bluntly.

 In normal circumstances Claudia would have relished the way the prince’s cheeks glowed in embarrassment. Something in the man’s sudden appearance kept her from laughing however.

 “Claudia, your mother is dead.”

The words spilled out of the man’s mouth easily. He had a look a sadness on his face. She could hear the prince let out a laugh. But everything else seemed to go numb. Her mother couldn’t be dead. She was the best knight in the kingdom. She just couldn’t die like that.


	2. Twelve Years Later

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Tavern basically sucks

Claudia made her way into the busy tavern. In the past month she had visited the establishment more often than she ever would have before. The lighting inside was low, as were the patrons that often visited the Squeaky Wheel. Looking around, everyone seemed either way to hary, way to drunk, or in the women's case, way to slutty.

In a far corner, Claudia found the man she was looking for. If Claudia had seen Gideon passing on a street she may have thought he had looked handsome. His long blonde hair and light green eyes usually had that effect on people. However Claudia couldn’t help that he effected far too many people, far too often.

“Sir Avlet, do you think you could stop flirting long enough to do your job,” Claudia huffed, obviously annoyed at the knight.

Gideon’s eyes flicked over towards Claudia. Claudia watched as Gideon’s eyes looked her up and down, something that he had been doing since she had known him. Claudia simply glared back at, willing her cheeks not to burn the way the wanted too. 

“Very well,” he said turning back to the women he was speaking too. “It appears that I leave you. It truly is such a travesty but I fear our kingdom needs us. I being the man I am will carry the weight that is given to me.”

You know what, I can wait outside for you to finish,” Claudia interrupted.

Claudia stormed outside, eager to leave the Squeaky wheel. The smell of tobacco smoke was beginning to give her a headache. She leaned against the outside of the tavern, breathing in the fresh air and trying to clear her head. 

“Look what we have here.”

Claudia decided immediately that today was not her day. She looked up finding a young man staring down at her. The man had dark curly hair and light hazel eyes. His skin was fair and flawless, his clothes made of the finest material. He was surrounded by other men, all of them sons of nobles and dressed in a similar fashion.

“What can I do for you, my prince?” Claudia asked with a slight bow. 

“Now Lady Quincy, how many times have I told you, there is no need to address me so formally, a simple sir Rylan would do,” the prince said cockily.

“I apologize my prince, but your father has stated many times his disagreement with your attention on me.”

“What my father does not know, will not cause him harm Claudia.”

Prince Rylan got on Claudia’s last nerve. If he wasn’t spending his days prancing with the nobles son’s, he was gallivanting with noble woman, or occasionally peasant women. Claudia had even seen him with a man once. They way he insisted on flirting on her despite the king's exact words, “do not fraternize with my knights”, it infuriated Claudia to no end. To think, this was the man who was supposed to one day rule the kingdom. The thought made her sick. 

“Come Claudia, we both know that you are getting tired of feigning disinterest, why not give in,” the prince said with a cocky smirk.

Claudia was about to once again remind him of the king's words, however at that moment Gideon exited the tavern. He stopped, confused and curious as to what was going on.

“Ah, Sir Avlet. Now that you are here we can be on our way, the king has requested our presence immediately. I apologize my prince, but we are required elsewhere.”

“I see,” Rylan said looking between Claudia and Gideon before smiling. “I suppose I must let you go then. It was nice to speak to you Claudia and I shall hopefully run into you again soon. Very soon.”

He whispered the last part for Claudia's ears only and she had to suppress a shiver at the chuckle that followed it. Claudia waited as Rylan entered the tavern, followed by his nobles. 

“Are you alright Lady Quincy,” Gideon said, looking genuinely worried. 

“Not at all. I fear we may be keeping the king waiting.” 

With that Claudia began walking, eager to get away from the infernal tavern. She really did hate going there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I would like to worn everyone now that I write small chapters. I know some people like really long and lengthy chapters, that is not me. However I am glad to say that when I'm in the zone, I post lots of chapters.

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, this is this first chapter of what I hope will one day resemble some sort of decent story. I don't know how many chapter it will have. My only hope is that by the end, I have something resembling a lesson about loyalty.


End file.
